The Puffer Forum

Okay, I'm new and I'm curious about a lot of things related to puffers. However, I have had a GSP once twenty years ago and this question has weighted on my mind for a long time and I'm wondering if anyone can answer it. Knowing even less about puffers back then, then I do now. I put a 1 1/2 GSP in with two 5 inch african cichalids that I had for a long time. Two hours later I come back to find both the cichlids dead and the puffer buzzing around as if nothing had happen.

How did a 1 1/2 fish that was small enough to be eaten by two aggressive cichlids end up killing them?

LOL, read my GSP article in our Library.

Two ways - 1) Blowing out their jaws. He gets partially swallowed, puffs, and breaks their jaws joints open from the inside, killing them. Puffer skin being what it is, he would be fine unless he got organ damage from the pressure of the bite. 2) NIP NIP NIP NIP NIP NIP NIP NIP. Puffer beaks are devastating to other fish, in the wild it's seldom an issue, puffer locomotion being what it is, but in a tank, where fish are constantly forced to turn...

As I'm sure you know, a puffer's diet consists of hard-shelled invertebrates, for which they have an appropriate "beak" and jaw; imagine what something that can crunch hard snail shells can do to soft fish flesh.
Your cichlids also may have been wary of trying to eat a poisonous puffer fish.